Cops: Group tried to kidnap boy on West Side

Map of location where a group tried to lure a boy inside of a car on the West Side. (Google Maps)

Police have issued an alert after a group of people riding in a car and a van tried to lure a 10-year-old boy with candy in the Lawndale neighborhood on the West Side.

The boy was walking his dog near Ogden and Drake avenues around 9 a.m. Sunday when a man pulled up in a red two-door car with two other passengers inside, police said.

The man told the boy to get in the car. Soon afterward, another man called out to the boy from a blue van and promised him candy if he got inside. The van had five other males inside, police said.

The boy refused and ran home.

The man who called out to the boy from the red car was described as a black man in his 20s, with short black twists in his hair and one gold earring. Police said he had brown eyes and a medium complexion.

The man who called out from the blue van was described as a white man with a fair complexion between the ages of 20 to 30. He was bald and was wearing a yellow sweater with a red shirt underneath, light brown shorts and red and white Michael Jordan gym shoes. He appeared to have a knife in one of his gym shoes, said police.

The passengers of the van where all black males and one of them had red markings on his face, possibly a tattoo, police said.

The red care was a newer model with chrome rims that had spinners. The van had the word "dish" faintly visible on the side under a coat of blue paint, police said.

Anyone with information can call Area Central Detective Division at 312-747-8380.